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As Ukrainian and American officials sat down in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday for their first high-level meeting since an Oval Office shouting match<\/a> between their presidents last month, the goal will be finding a way to halt the bloodiest European war in generations.<\/p>\n But the United States, Ukraine and Russia appear to have very different ideas about what any cease-fire should look like. Two of the three took new steps to try to bridge those gaps on Tuesday \u2014 hours after Ukraine and Russia launched deadly strikes<\/a> on each other\u2019s territory.<\/p>\n In a conference room at the Ritz-Carlton hotel in the city of Jeddah, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Michael Waltz, the U.S. national security adviser, met with a delegation from Kyiv led by Andriy Yermak, the Ukrainian president\u2019s chief of staff, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to have very constructive, deep, friendly, partner conversation,\u201d Mr. Yermak said before the talks began.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ukraine has proposed an immediate cessation of air and sea strikes, but wants security guarantees before its infantry lays down its arms. The United States is pressing for an immediate, comprehensive cease-fire. And Russia, which is not at the talks, has signaled that it wants concessions of its own before halting the war it started.<\/p>\n If the Ukrainian proposal to halt the air and sea strikes is agreed to, it would bring about the first negotiated reduction in the fighting in three years of war, but the Trump administration has made clear it is looking for more. Ukraine has offered the unconditional truce on long-range strikes as a confidence building measure while continuing talks on a more comprehensive cease-fire.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Rubio has said that Ukraine would have to make concessions over land that Russia has taken since 2014 as part of any peace agreement.<\/p>\n \u201cThe most important thing that we have to leave here with is a strong sense that Ukraine is prepared to do difficult things, like the Russians are going to have to do difficult things, to end this conflict or at last pause it in some way,\u201d Mr. Rubio told reporters on Monday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Yermak, the Ukrainian president\u2019s chief of staff, said Tuesday before the talks got underway that his delegation was \u201cvery open\u201d to any dialogue that would bring a settlement, but noted the importance of security guarantees \u2014 an issue that has become contentious in negotiations with the United States.<\/p>\n These are the first high-level, in-person talks for the United States and Ukraine since a Feb. 28 White House meeting between President Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine unraveled into an argument and insults. \u201cYou\u2019ve talked enough,\u201d Mr. Trump told Mr. Zelensky at one point. \u201cYou won\u2019t win.\u201d<\/p>\n Since then, Mr. Zelensky has sought to smooth relations with Mr. Trump, and Ukrainian officials have been careful in framing their proposal. Over the weekend, French and British officials coached the Ukrainian delegation on how to talk with the Americans, a Ukrainian official with the delegation said.<\/p>\n Ukraine favors a truce at sea and in the air, said the official, who was not authorized to speak publicly of the delegation\u2019s plans, but may pose the idea tentatively. \u201cWe don\u2019t know if the Russians are ready for any steps to peace\u201d the official said, adding that the Ukrainians would ask if the Americans, who have been talking to the Russians separately, had insight into Moscow\u2019s position.<\/p>\n The Kremlin\u2019s spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said Tuesday that it was \u201cimpossible to talk about positions now\u201d and that Russia expected the American side to inform Moscow about the results of talks with Ukraine. Mr. Trump\u2019s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, plans to visit Russia in the coming days, according to a person familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to discuss internal plans.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Mr. Zelensky proposed the partial cease-fire last week, with support from President Emmanuel Macron of France. Russia has not directly responded. Ukraine\u2019s president has also called for an all-for-all exchange of prisoners of war, a traditional confidence-building measure in peace talks.<\/p>\n The proposals that Ukraine is bringing to Jeddah are its most detailed to date. In return, it is seeking one immediate action from the United States: a resumption of American military aid and intelligence sharing that was suspended after the Oval Office debacle.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n The intelligence cutoff has already impaired soldiers in combat, particularly in the Kursk region of Russia, where Russian soldiers, aided by fighter from North Korea, have been rapidly advancing<\/a>, according to Ukrainian commanders in the field.<\/p>\n